Pulsating Stars

Description

This book surveys our understanding of stars which change in brightness because they pulsate. Pulsating variable stars are keys to distance scales inside and beyond the Milky Way galaxy. They test our understanding not only of stellar pulsation theory but also of stellar structure and evolution theory. Moreover, pulsating stars are important probes of the formation and evolution of our own and neighboring galaxies. Our understanding of pulsating stars has greatly increased in recent years as large-scale surveys of pulsating stars in the Milky Way and other Local Group galaxies have provided a wealth of new observations and as space-based instruments have studied particular pulsating stars in unprecedented detail.

About the Author

Márcio Catelan holds a full professorship at the Catholic University of Chile. Previous assignments were with the University of Virginia and with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He is the author of over 130 journal papers and numerous review articles, and presents an impressive record of institutional service and awards, including Hubble and Guggenheim fellowships.

Horace Smith is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University. He received his Master's degree and PhD from Yale and his research is focused on variable stars and what we can learn from them about the evolution of stars and galaxies. He has published extensively in astronomical journals and is the author of a book on RR Lyrae stars. He has served on numerous scientific committees and as a reviewer for several astronomical journals.